Henri Arnaud

Arnaud, Henri (äNrēˈ ärnōˈ) [key], 1641–1721, pastor and leader of the Waldenses. When Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, in league with the French, set out to expel the Waldenses, Arnaud led (1686) a band of the Waldenses into Switzerland. In 1689 he led some of them back to their Piedmont valleys, where they withstood a combined French-Savoyard attack. In 1690, Victor Amadeus turned against the French, and Arnaud gained the favor of the duke and acted as his agent while the Waldenses fought on the side of the Savoyards and were repatriated. A new political turn sent Arnaud into exile again, and after 1699 he lived in Württemberg. He wrote an account of the return of the Waldenses, Histoire de la glorieuse rentrée des vaudois dans leurs vallées (1710, tr. 1827).